CHALLENGES FACED BY WOMEN FOR VERTICAL MOBILITY IN .
CHALLENGES FACED BY WOMEN FOR VERTICAL MOBILITY INPOLITICS:A COMPARITIVE STUDY OF SWEDEN AND INDIAA structural social work approach for gender empowermentSanaya Singh2011Examensarbete, kandidatnivå, 15 hpSocialt arbeteSocial work, Specialisation in International Social WorkHandledare: Anders HydénExaminator: Fereshteh Ahmadi1
AstractThe aim of this thesis is to explore the challenges women face for vertical mobility in politics in Indiaand Sweden, the similarities and differences. Gender empowerment and equal opportunities areessential features for an egalitarian society, development, national and international peace. Promotinggender empowerment through women’s effective participation in politics is a structural interventionalapproach in social work. However studies show women face numerous obstacles in achieving politicalrepresentation. Gender inequality, inequitable division of labour, cultural attitudes, electoral systemsare some reasons which subjugate women and limit their representation in public life. Sweden andIndia differ immensely in all of these factors and more. However, similarity in these nations is the lowrepresentation of women councillors in key decision making positions in governance; resulting inexclusion of women’s interests and issues in public policy. In-depth interviews conducted with sixrespondents from both nations analysed in a feministic framework reveal cultural, ideological, socioeconomic and political structures as common challenges. Social work interventions in all these spherescan lead to sustainable empowerment for women.Keywords; Gender empowerment, structural social work, women’s political representation, verticalmobility in politics, India,Sweden2
AcknowledgementThis bachelor’s thesis on the topic of challenges faced by women for vertical mobility in politics inSweden and India has indeed been a challenging issue to work on, especially so, as it is a comparativestudy of a system in two contexts; women being the centre of foci. My field work practical enabled meto discover and explore this topic and I am grateful to Resource and Support Centre for Development,India, that they gave me the opportunity to interact with women whose struggles to be leaders forcreating a better society would inspire me to take up this study. I would like to thank the MaharashtraState Election Commission and especially Mr. Goel for giving me the access to evolve project KrantiJyoti for capacity building of women councillors. Both these organisations gave me an avid exposureto this issue closely.I am thankful to my guide Anders Hydén for having rigorous brainstorming sittings with me andhelping me focus and materialize my thesis. I believe this thesis has opened arenas to me to thinkbroadly about political systems and women leadership at micro to macro levels, as a social worker.This rich experience may lead me to direct my future endeavours for this issue. I sincerely thank theFaculty of Social Work at University of Gävle, Sweden, for having accepted my proposal and forhaving providing guidance whenever required.I am thankful to all participants and respondents of this study. Your insights and experiences haveenabled me to establish this paper and made me know the world much more than before I met you.This acknowledgement being a first of its kind is very special to me, and I want to show my gratitudeto my Mother, for having being there throughout the process. This study would not have been possiblewithout your constant patient guidance, encouragement and faith mum. To my father, it’s tough tospell out the intellect you helped me put into this study, thank you baba. Thank you so much foreverything3
List of Contents1. Introduction . 61.1 The significance of Women’s public representation . 61.2 Women’s political representation; A legitimate concern for social work . 81.3 Purpose, research aim and research questions . 101.4 Central concepts and definitions . 111.5Disposition 122. Earlier Research . 132.1 Women’s representation; The Case of Sweden. 132.2 Women’s representation; The Case of India . 142.3 Women in numbers . 162.4 The Challenges . 173. Theoretical Framework . 194. Methodology . 224.1 Philosophy of Science; Phenomenology . 224 .2Research Design . 234.3. Sampling . 244.4 Data Collection . 254.4.1 Conducting Interviews . 254.4.2 Direct Observations . 254.4.3 Secondary Data . 274.5 Data transcription . 274.6 Data Analysis . 284.7 Essay credibility . 284.7.1 Reliability . 294.7.2 Validity . 294.7.3 Generalization . 294.8 Ethical Aspects . 294.9 Limitations of study . . 295. Results and Analyses. 305.1 Theme 1: Ideological and cultural factors . 315.1.1 Cultures . 325.1.2 Traditional gender roles and Domestic responsibilities . 334
5.1.3 ‘Dirty’ Politics . 355.1.4 Lack of ambition and confidence . 365.2 Theme 2: Political Problems . 365.2.1 Party ideologies . 365.2.2 Electoral Systems . 375.3 Theme 3: Socio-economic factors . 385.3.1 Kinship ties . 395.3.2 Education . 415.3.3 Resources and resource mobilization . 425.3.4 Financial Constraints . 425.4 Holostic Analysis . 436. Discussion. 446.1 Summary of results in terms of research Aim . 446.2 Theoretical interpretation of results connected to earlier research . 456.3 Methodological discussion . 466.4 Suggestions for further research . 47Reference list . 48Appendix 1: Interview guide . 505
1. INTRODUCTION1.1The significance of Women’s public representationWomen all over the world are victims of gender inequality and injustice today. Domestic violence,rape, physical, sexual, psychological and economic abuse, eve- teasing, honour killings, dowry deaths,female foeticide, malnutrition, illiteracy, lower salaries, poor reproductive health, Devdasi1traditions,child marriages, trafficking of girls and women are just a few of the problems women face today. Tocombat such widespread social problems, social workers work to promote gender equality wherewomen are empowered to defend their rights. “Gender equality is not only a basic human right, but itsachievement has enormous socio-economic ramifications. Empowering women fuels thrivingeconomies, spurring productivity and growth” (UNIFEM, 2011). Goal three of United NationsMillennium Development Goals is “to promote gender equality and to empower women”.Largely, it is noted that the discriminations and inequalities against women might be eradicated bywomen’s participation in political systems. “Women’s participation in democracy through politics iswithout doubt an important step towards social equality, economic development and national andinternational peace.” (Kumari & Kidwani, 1998:4). The participation of women in macro leveldecision making is absolutely essential in order to ensure that policy making takes into accountwomen’s perspectives and experiences and is thus gender just. As Shvedova (2007) argues, theexclusion of women from decision-making bodies limits the possibilities for entrenching the principlesof democracy in a society, hindering economic development and discouraging the attainment of genderequality. If men monopolize the political process, passing laws which affect society at large, thedecision-making process does not always balance the interests of the male and female populations. Asnoted in the Millennium Development Goals, women’s equal participation with men in power anddecision making is part of their fundamental right to participate in political life, and at the core ofgender equality and women’s empowerment. Women have to be active participants in determiningdevelopment agendas.Social workers, it is observed in many countries, work under and to implement public policies andenable individuals and communities to benefit from these policies. However, social workers shouldalso consider it their role- formal or intentional, to critically analyse these policies they work toimplement, to ensure whether these policies will lead to sustainable holistic development of society ornot. If the focusing on the needs of particular marginalized groups is absent while formulating thepolicy or implementing it, it will only give rise to more inequality and disparity in society.1Devdasi literally means Gods female servant where pre-pubertal girls are married to the local religiousdeity to serve (read sexual satisfaction) priests and other powerful men of the village for rest of her life.It is a system of institutionalized exploitation of women in India.6
As discussed earlier, exclusion of women from this decision making in politics more often than notresults in policies and schemes which are at best indifferent to women’s realities and at worst,contribute towards their future marginalisation. Inclusion of women and giving them power in politicalinstitutions furthers inclusion of women’s voices in decision making all around the globe. . Generallyspeaking, the idea of power connotes the ability to change one’s own status as well as that of others.Moreover, having experienced oppression as powerless victims of abuse and deprivation gives womena chance to work empathetically for upliftment of others who suffer similarly. Participation of womenin public policy making through membership of elected bodies is thus seen as a step towards genderempowerment (Chakrabarty and Agarwala, 2006:17). Thus, social workers can contribute their skillsin executing gender and societal equality by focusing on inclusion of women in all levels of politics.Studies show that higher number of women in parliaments generally contributes to stronger attentionto women’s issue and this shows that women’s political participation is a fundamental prerequisite forpromoting gender equality, empowerment and genuine democracy (UNIFEM, 2011).As this awareness swells, policies for women’s upliftment are reflected in election manifestos of thepolitical parties, quotas are reserved for women’s representations in parliaments and local municipals,women’s organisations and women’s movements have actively worked on this issue, and so, there hasbeen significant progress in women’s improving women’s political representation in many nations. Itappears to be a global trend that women’s political representation has increased both on local andnational level during the last decades (Lovenduski 2000). The world average of 18.7 % for women’spolitical representation in the lower house, according to the Inter Parliamentary Union (World averagefor women in national parliament, single or lower house), includes a great variation around the worldfrom 0% in Saudi Arabia to over 50% in Rwanda (IPU, World average for women in nationalparliament, world classification according to country. Situation as of September 2009). The variationsin these bodies have a wide spectrum of explanations and researchers discuss one or a few factorsuniversal for all countries or periods of times. Some stress structural factors, while others claim thatinstitutional or actors are the crucial explanatory factor. However, gender in politics has two sides, andalthough separate they are associated with each other. One is women’s representation and the other isconcern for women’s issues. Representation increases the likelihood for considering women’s issues aswell as brings in gender perspective; however representation on its own cannot guarantee the desiredoutcome (Sumbadze, 2008:33). Putting focus on this aspect of gender in politics, one of the keyfindings of International Institute of Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) in their handbook‘Women in Parliament; Beyond Numbers’ (2007) is that “representation means more than sheernumbers and elected politics- It means that more women must have seats the Cabinet table, morewomen must be appointed to senior decision-making positions, and more women’s voices must beheard and included when major political reform or transformation is undertaken”. Studies show that7
even if and when elected, women tend to hold lesser valued positions or positions of lesserresponsibilities. These portfolios often described as “soft industries” include mostly health, educationand welfare. Rarely do women hold executive decision-making positions in more powerful domains ofpolitics, such as finance, defence or international relations, which are often associated with traditionalnotions of masculinity and power. Typically, the more powerful the domain, the less likely it is to beheaded by a woman. Previous studies on this issue points out that factors like socio-economic barriers,culture, gender stereotypes, limited access to information about political procedures, electoral systems,financial constraints etc thwart participation of women in public and political life. Women areoutnumbered 4 to 1 in legislatures around the world. In mid 2009, only 17 heads of state orgovernment were women (UNIFEM).As discussed earlier, participation of women in politics and decision making process is essential so thatwomen can effectively participate in policy making its implementation. In this regards, women notonly from grass roots, but holding influential positions can create pressure on the government andthrough collective endeavour advocate for social transformation (Chakrabarty and Agarwala, 2006:17).This study focuses on two countries, which differ immensely in terms of all factors pointed out inprevious research mentioned in the abstract- Sweden and India.The representation of women in numbers and their effective participation in national legislatures is anissue of great importance to researchers and social work organisations around the world. While therepresentation of women is an accomplishment in its own right, and considering their increasingeffective participations, what remains to be said is whether or not this representation of women inlocal governance turns into state and national leadership, affecting the level of gender equality andjustice present to a great extent and if not, why? This study attempts to explore these hidden barriersthat the women who go through the political process can talk about in one to one interviews. Withoutappropriate representation of women in the legislative bodies and political participation of women atall levels, any issues concerning women would remain neglected, and hence I take up this study. Asformer UN Secretary-General Kofi Annann summarizes ''The role of women in decision making iscentral to the advancement of women around the world and to the progress of human kind as a whole''1.2 Women’s political representation; a legitimate concern for Social WorkThe overarching conceptual point of departure for this study is macro level social work, and morespecifically, the structural social work approach. This approach challenges the individual level focusof conventional social work and emphasizes emancipation and social justice of masses. “Structuralsocial work questions the legitimacy of institutions and systems, suggesting that real advances in8
social welfare cannot be achieved without fundamental changes to the way in which global societyorganizes the distribution of resources and power” (Gray and Webb, 2008: 87). However, whileemphasizing social transformation through macro level systems, it does not neglect personal issues andindividual difficulties. “Individual and structural changes are addressed simultaneously, because eachof these levels is related to and affects the other. Hence, structural social work has the twin goals ofalleviating the negative effects of an exploitative and alienating social order on individuals, whilesimultaneously aiming to transform society” (ibid, 88). This thesis focuses the structural approachspecifically on the ‘political’ structure, which in many sociological, feministic and other discourses isoften perceived as a dominant oppressive structure which defines a society (Abbott and Wallace, 2003,38). Structural social work highlights the way in which dominant structures decrease access toopportunities, resources and power for certain groups, resulting in individual and collectiveexperiences of oppression. In this view, it can be said that women being excluded from the politicalstructure up to a large extent due to questionable vertical mobility leading to very few women holdingkey decision making posts decreases women’s access to power, opportunities and resources, leading toindividual and collective oppression. Structural social work approach’s historical and critical analysischallenges the dominant social and economic structures of patriarcha
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